Harry Potter and The Choice
by NinjaBartender
Summary: A twist on the story we all know and love.


I welcome you to the beginning of a glorious tale which i'm about to weave. This story will take place in an Alternate Harry Potter Universe, one that will show how big a difference a simple choice can make in the scope of your life. Of course, for Harry Potter, no choice ever seems to be that simple. Yet there was one, which if he perhaps pondered longer before giving his answer, he might have come to this same end. This "What If" scenario is from his first major encounter with a man known simply to most, as Lord Voldemort, but we know him for who he really is, Tom Marvollo Riddle.

The man, known to be perhaps the Darkest of Dark Wizards, offered Harry the chance to join with him and use the Sorcerer's Stone to perhaps bring his dearly departed parents back to life. But Harry did not take this offer, and instead chose to try and thwart evil wherever he thought he'd seen it. Yet, have you ever wondered what might have happened if he DID ally with Lord Voldemort? Would he have lived happily ever after with his entire family about him, including Sirius, whom could have been set free from Azkaban on the word of James and Lily upon their rebirth? This story will let us explore all of those questions, and so many more. So, without further ado, i give you:

_**Harry Potter and The Choice Which Could Have Changed It All**_

Chapter 1: The Stone

"But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing...I thought Snape was threatening you..."

For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell's face.

"Sometimes" he said"I find it hard to follow my master's instructions...he is a great wizard and I am weak..."

"You mean he was there in the classroom with you" Harry gasped.

"He is with me wherever I go" said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it... Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me... decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me..."

Quirrell's voice trailed away. Harry was remembering his trip to Diagon Alley...how could he have been so stupid? He'd seen Quirrell there that very day, shaken hands with him in the Leaky Cauldron.

Quirrell cursed under his breath.

"I don't understand... is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it"

Harry's mind was racing.

What I want more than anything else in the world at the moment, he thought, is to find the Stone before Quirrell does. So if I look in the mirror, I should see myseff finding it...which means I'll see where it's hidden! But how can I look without Quirrell realizing what I'm up to?

He tried to edge to the left, to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing, but the ropes around his ankles were too tight: he tripped and fell over. Quirrell ignored him. He was still talking to himself. "What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master"

And to Harry's horror, a voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself

"Use the boy... Use the boy..."

Quirrell rounded on Harry.

"Yes...Potter...come here."

He clapped his hands once, and the ropes binding Harry fell off. Harry got slowly to his feet.

"Come here" Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see."

Harry walked toward him.

I must lie, he thought desperately. I must look and lie about what I see, that's all.

Quirrell moved close behind him. Harry breathed in the funny smell that seemed to come from Quirrell's turban. He closed his eyes, stepped in front of the mirror, and opened them again.

He saw his reflection, pale and scared-looking at first. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket...and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow...incredibly...he'd gotten the Stone.

"Well" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see"

Harry screwed up his courage.

"I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore" he invented. "I...I've won the house cup for Gryffindor."

Quirrell cursed again.

"Get out of the way" he said. As Harry moved aside, he felt the Sorcerer's Stone against his leg. Dare he make a break for it?

But he hadn't walked five paces before a high voice spoke, though Quirrell wasn't moving his lips.

"He lies... He lies..."

"Potter, come back here" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see"

The high voice spoke again.

"Let me speak to him... face-to-face..."

"Master, you are not strong enough"

"I have strength enough... for this..."

Harry felt as if Devil's Snare was rooting him to the spot. He couldn't move a muscle. Petrified, he watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. What was going on? The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.

Harry would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

"Harry Potter..." it whispered.

Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move.

"See what I have become" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapor ... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own... Now... why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket"

So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs. He stumbled backward.

"Don't be a fool" snarled the face. "Better save your own life and join me... we could be great, and try to bring your parents back to life. The stone could do it, with my help, and our powers combined! I could teach you everything i know, Harry. With my knowledge of Magic, you could become the Greatest Wizard to ever live! What do you say"

"I just don't know...how could i trust you, you're the one who killed them" Harry screamed at the face.

"Harry, i killed them not out of malice, but of necessity" Voldemort replied cooly"There are occasions when you are so blinded by a goal, that anyone who gets in your way is merely something to be removed. I had not counted on the strength of love your mother had for you though. Thus my own spell rebounded upon me, leaving me in my current state." With that said, Lord Voldemort knew he was close to finally convincing the puny boy to hand over the stone. He could see it in his eyes, and watched as the thoughts whirled around inside the confused boy's mind. Yes, Harry Potter would succomb, and together they would finally bring about his true reign of Darkness.

Here he was, Harry Potter, standing in the same room as the man whom he'd come to hate after finally learning the truth of his life. For months now, he had wondered what he might do if ever put in a face to face situation with his parents murderer. Yet this man, or at least wraith of the man he once was, didn't seem all that horrible if he could return to him the life which he'd always longed to have. He could get his parents back! The sheer thought made his mind swim, he was lost in its infinite depths of possibilities.

"But i thought that the dead could never come back, how could the stone possibly do it" asked Harry, trying to get more information out of Voldemort.

Lord Voldemort could see it now, as plain as day in the boy's mind...he was ready, all that was left was to give him the answers he so badly wanted. Let him finally hope to reach for the goal he'd always wished would happen. Yes, Voldemort loved these type of moments, when he could promise the world to a person, only to later crush all that hope from them.

"Well Harry, the Sorcerer's Stone is a very powerful magical item. Long have it's powers been shrouded in mystery, but in my travels around the world as a boy i came across a man. This man was immensely powerful in the dark arts. I came to apprentice under him, and he showed me all that i had dreamed of. Perhaps you know of him, his name was Grindlewald? Anyways, he imparted to me a ritual, a ritual the likes of which have rarely been seen, that could with the help of the ellusive Elixer of Life, bring back the dead" replied the Dark Lord, knowing that this would only further the trust the boy was starting to have in him.

He thought it over, and it made perfect sense to Harry. Naturally those who were deemed "dark" would have knowledge of how to bring back the dead. Even moreso with the Sorcerer's Stone handy. It was virtually the most powerful item he'd ever known, able to bestow Immortality and Endless Riches on it's owner. But would Lord Voldemort keep his word? Everyone he'd ever met since finding out he was a Wizard had told him just how very horrible this man was. Could they all be so wrong?

The Dark Lord read all these thoughts as easily as a book. He was always a most skilled Legilimens, few could doubt his prowess in that rare mind art. A shame this pitiful boy had no clue whom he was dealing with, it made the game almost far too easy.

Harry thought carefully before he said these next words, knowing that they would bring him somewhere entirely different than he had ever been"I will give you the stone, but you have to promise that you won't hurt anyone else in the future and will help me get back my parents. To ensure your word, i'm going to go with you and watch your every move. That way i'll know exactly if you break our bargain."

Voldemort wanted to break out laughing just then, but he knew better for he'd just won. Yet hoow could this mere boy, only in his first year of Wizarding School ever hope to match power and skills with the Dark Lord, Master of the Dark Arts and Heir of mighty Salazar Slytherin? Perhaps this Harry Potter was a bigger fool than he ever imagined.

But the Dark Lord would play along"You've got yourself a deal, Harry Potter. Your a wise bargainer, and a skilled Wizard...this relationship will turn out wonderfully. Now we only have to get out of Hogwarts, and go to my home. It is well hidden, and far from here, but we will make it in no time. Then we will begin the process needed to first return me to my body and full powers, and give your parents back to you."

Now that the conversation seemed at it's end, Quirrel decided it was his turn to pipe up"Mmmaaster, we should probably be going quickly. Those pesky kids that hang out with young Mr. Potter here have most likely set off to tell Dumbledore where he is, and what's happening."

"Yes, Quirrell, we're to leave at once. Don't worry your bumbling head off, for i don't care to see the floor upclose at this time" Lord Voldemort quipped. "Come Harry, we have much to do, and not much time to do it in. For i'm sure that once Dumbledore notices both you, and the stone are gone he'll foolheartedly try to come after us."

"Ok, but which way do we leave? If we go back the way i came in, surely they will be waiting for us, won't they" Harry replied anxiously, already living in his mind the fantasies of playing Quidditch with his Dad, or getting dance lessons from his Mum. He couldn't bear to have this life stripped from him again, and would vehemently fight for it, even at the side of Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort was amused at how this situation had so turned. Now Harry was willing to even fight to protect him. He could never have dreamed for things to become this great. Now he had the stone, and converted a former enemy into an ally. The day was still young, and he was starting to believe he could accomplish anything. Let that fool Mudblood-Lover Dumbledore come after him, he'd curse him into oblivion!

"Don't worry Harry, Lord Voldemort has powers behind even your imagination, and will use them to get us all out of here without that old fool ever knowing what happened. By the time they reach this spot, we'll be halfway to London" said the Dark Lord, so very casually that it left no room for arguement.

Harry Potter felt good, better than he'd felt in months. Better even than when he first flew on a broom. He was sure that Lord Voldemort would keep his word, and everything would be right in the world. Something to which he so very desired. Amazing how when you least expect it, the pieces are able to fall so perfectly into place. So, as Quirrell led the way out, slowly rewrapping his turban and concealing his Master back in the clever hiding place, Harry was content to follow.

That unlikeliest of trio's departed the dungeon together. Intent on reaching the secret base of the Death Eaters, one that had not been ventured into for 11 years. For all the Death Eaters had feared that place after the fall of their Dark Lord those years ago. They were a weak willed lot, but soon, so very very soon Lord Voldemort would make them all pay for not coming to his aid before. Yes, they would pay for their sins against the Master whom they swore fealty to. Lord Voldemort would make sure of that, especially with his new apprentice at his side. This new regime of his would be all the more powerful for him too. No longer would he have to fear that one, but after he was done training him, everyone would surely fear him!


End file.
